SEO-Search Engine Optimization: October 2006

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Google Loves Natural Methods

Author: Hamid Reza Soroush Zand

It all began as of January when some newly optimized and boosted websites were shocked to see a dramatic change in their Google search rankings. Thousands of websites were unchanged, some went drastically down and some, up.

Admins of such online companies shocked about what had happened consulted their beloved SEO companies and thousands of online experts were analyzing the case.

It was clear that Google had become smarter, changing the search algorithm and would realize the usual artificial seo techniques such as overnight link building strategies and other tricks.

Well, a large number of old websites are happy about all this cause Google has started to create a longer period for newbies to get to top of search engines.

It was usual that before the latest makeover if you wanted to get listed in first three pages of Google and other websites, you had to be famous either normally through natural links from other websites or through buying link ads.

To some extent this has changed, now if you register a domain name and set up your website and are in need of high search engine rankings, you should be patient and exercise legitimate, natural methods to be indexed higher.

For example it's not recommended to buy several high pagerank links in a week, cause your newly established website might not even be indexed or start getting rankings even for a whole year after registering your domain.

So try to be a friend to Google by 1) Be patient cause hurrying in SEO might be hurting your website as well. 2)It's not the end of the world not being able to get listed in first pages of Google search results, so try Google Adwords and online advertisement. 3)Don't concentrate too much on Google, try to get higher rankings in other major search engines like Yahoo and MSN. 4)Try increasing your Google popularity through natural webmaster link buildings and through blogs, message boards and last but not least through RSS.

Don't worry, if you offer nice web content and competitive services to your customers, you will be in profit even if you are not listed as you like in Google.

About the author: The author is the admin of a design studio and studies web technologies, He can be contacted through info@bannerperfect.com

Don't Put Your Slogan in the Title Tag - Optimize Your Web Pages

Author: Soren Breiting

Don't just put your slogan in the title tag when you formulate the copy of your website. The formulation of the title tag is the most important single aspect when you fine-tune your website:

1. It is what people first read when the listing of your site turns up in Google and other search engines.

2. It is the single element of your website that the search engines pay the highest emphasis on.

If you look up the source code, the title is what is between these tags: title and /title in the hard brackets. You can get the length of your title tag checked here: http://www.scrubtheweb.com/cgi-bin/webtools/meta-check.cgi

A typical slogan isn't stuffed with important keywords. My slogan for my stock photography business is ""Stock photos from most of the World"" and I am quite happy with that. It is honest and catchy which I like. But it isn't a good title for my website of A-Z Fotos: www.azfotos.com . Let us analyze that as an example.

The first two words of the slogan would be fine as the title tag because 'stock photos' are among the main keywords for A-Z Fotos. They are also fine because they are put in front of the title tag. Don't forget this so-called 'keyword prominence' in title tags.

They also function well when people are browsing down the listing after the search button has been activated, because people tend to look for exactly the word they wrote in the search box.

But the words 'from most of the' is absolutely useless. It is the kind of words that the search engines simply ignore because they are too common. The last word 'World' isn't any better. Nobody would search for the 'World'. - To say it mildly, it is too broad!

The alternative to your slogan is to formulate a title which includes your most important keywords for the specific webpage in such a way that it is attractive when the surfer browses down the search result.

For Google the title shouldn't be longer than 62 characters. Include your brand name if it includes keywords. Otherwise avoid it in the title unless it is very well known. As always be careful to choose relevant keywords and combinations of words that are often searched after. I always check at

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ for the relevance of the keywords I have in mind. Be aware that many keywords are to some extent seasonal. Overture offers the frequency of searches in US of last month.

Searches in UK can be checked at

http://inventory.uk.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Remember to make the title tag even more specific for your subpages, i.e. the pages after the home page (index-page).

Avoid having more than one page with the same title.

About the author: Get help from Soren Breiting to find ideas for your online marketing at http://www.ALLeMarketingTips.com and receive the latest really useful tips at http://www.StockPhotoNews.com. Soren has written more than 20 printed books, and countless articles. He is widely published on the web, too. Enjoy Soren's wonderful stock photos at: http://www.azFOTOS.com

SEO Tips For People Who Aren't Dummies!

Author: Philip Lim

TIP ONE: THE IMPORTANCE OF KEY WORDS

In the world of marketing online, one topic comes up over and over with great frequency: site rankings. It can sometimes seem to be the 'holy grail' in the highly competitive world of online marketing, where search engines rule supreme. The reality is that unless you have deep pockets indeed, SEO optimization in the long run will be more affordable than simply buying placement with click campaigns and advertisements.

This is the good news. The bad news is that the process is slow, and it can take months (and months and months) of dedicated effort to achieve decent rankings (one reason you don't want to abandon those paid campaigns while optimizing your site). But it is well worth the time and effort in the long run, since it addresses the one issue that is foremost when marketing your product and services online: people use search engines such as Google and MSN to do their looking. And search engine listings that are highly ranked consistently outperform 'paid listings'.

So how do you get your site listed and ranked highly? Does it take dedicating your life fulltime to this effort, or specialized knowledge? The answer is ""yes"" and ""no"". It can help tremendously to hire the assistance of a firm that specializes in SEO (and, in fact, this is highly recommended). They can give you professional guidance in this arena, and steer you away from common mistakes.

But for those with a limited budget (which is most of us, nowadays, it seems) it's also possible to do your own site optimization, and work on a long-term campaign to help your site rise. It isn't easy (unlike those ads and books online that promise overnight success with no effort), but by rolling up your shirtsleeves and diving in, you can learn a tremendous amount, and help your site get found when people type in your products into a search engine.

TIP TWO: SELECT YOUR KEYWORDS CAREFULLY

Search engine keywords are what lead people (as in potential customers) who type in phrases in their favorite search engine to your site. When they go onto Google, Excite, or other search engines and directories, and are looking for a specific item, keywords are the ones that they type in during their search.

To market effectively to them, you will need to think like them (this is the basis of all excellent marketing). You will want to determine:

What phrases people type in when looking for your product, service, or content during their online searches (including the most common

misspellings, by the way). Not sure? Try looking at your web stats for your site. You should see an extremely valuable area called ""search strings"", with a list of words underneath it.

These search strings are the phrases that actually brought people to your web site. Which ones were the most popular? You'll want to note these. But you'll want to add more.

Sit down for a minute, and think of every possible phrase people might use for searching for your product. At this point, don't edit yourself, just let the words flow and write them down. If you sell used Chevrolets in Alexandria, VA, you might come up with ""used cars, used Chevrolets, vintage cars, reconditioned cars, Chevrolet dealers, Alexandria VA car dealers, Alexandria VA used cars"", as just a start.

By now, you should have a list. Go through it again, and decide which ones seem the most focused for your product or service. You want search engine keywords that will bring targeted customers to your site, who are interested in doing business with you, and the right keywords can help accomplish this. Be specific and relevant in your choices. Then, alphabetize your list, since some search engines and directories list pages alphabetically; so use your best phrases in alphabetical order whenever possible for better optimization.

Next, analyze which keyword phrases are realistic for obtaining high rankings. While you may sell used autos, and want to get top rankings for that term, 'used autos' is an extremely popular and general phrase, and odds are, difficult to get good rankings for. But if you sell used Chevrolets in Alexandria, Virginia, then it's realistic to hope for high rankings for search engine phrases for 'Alexandria used Chevrolets'. You'll also get a more targeted audience (think 'more likely to buy from me'), since most of your customers will probably come from your locale).

At this point, you should have a list of keywords. If you have a very short one, or are having trouble thinking of some, you can gain access to professional software at minimal cost. Just start a Google adwords campaign, or a CPC campaign on Overture. Each of these sites have ""keyword suggestion"" tools that will give you several keywords based on your product or service, and will include the relative popularity of each one.

TIP THREE: PLACE KEYWORDS CAREFULLY

Once you have your keywords, you'll want to use them in the right places. The goal is to help search engines find your site for those phrases, so you will want to place them in spots the engines look closely at. These include the page Title, inside the meta tags, inside the heading tag, in the domain name (more about this in a later lesson), and the keyword tags.

You will also want to sprinkle them liberally throughout the content (text) of your site, with special consideration for the top of your page and its first paragraphs. This is especially important on your home (index page), which is the one that most search engines will cache when spidering through. And please, have some real content on your page, and not just a list of keywords, or your site could go down in its rankings. Search engines do rank according to content relevancy, and the site that says ""Our dealership provides quality used Chevrolet cars, reconditioned to meet our customer's needs,"" (with at least 100 words of good, relevant content) will always rank higher than the site that says, ""cars, cars, cars, buy quality used Chevrolet cars, quality used cars are here"". In addition, you won't drive away customers offended by poor quality writing and obvious over-usage of marketing phrases.

But you do want to maintain a certain ratio of keyword density in your text; a keyword density of 5 to 7% is usually recommended. If you don't feel comfortable writing copy using keywords, a professional copywriter who specializes in online writing can help you.

THREE COMMON MISTAKES TO AVOID

Mistake #1 : One common error that many people make is to forget to place ALT tags for their graphics. You may have a beautiful logo or graphic on your web site, but if you don't have an alt tag, the search engines can't ""read it"". Be sure to place keywords there, and to label graphics with names that reflect keywords.

Mistake #2 : Always have text on your site. When creating your site, search engines depend upon text to decide what your site is about. The more relevant the text, the better. The spiders and bots can't ""read"" graphics as mentioned above. Don't just make the text for the site one big graphic, as some firms do. The search engines will skip over the graphic, and assume you have no content at all.

Mistake #3 : Finally, please don't spam (by trying to 'hide' your keywords by using a font the same color as the background, or repeating keyword phrases over and over in the title and meta tags). Search engines are now excellent at finding those who try to break the rules (and their technology for doing so is getting more sophisticated all the time), and will drop spammers from their indexes like a hot potato. So play by the rules, and when in doubt, ask an ethical SEO firm for advice, or visit one of the many excellent forums online (such as Jill Whalen's High Rankings Search Engine Forums).

Your site will rise more quickly, and enjoy higher rankings, if you follow these tips and their advice. And your traffic will increase, at no cost to you!

About the author: Philip Lim is the editor of www.Catasult.com which provides valuable tips and advice on web promotion and internet marketing from linking strategies to search engine industry news, internet marketing articles and more.

Creating A User-Friendly Website

Author: Karl Ribas

In my last article, I stated several facts about the importance of having a developed search engine friendly website. The website would be visually pleasing and at the same time optimized for high search engine rankings. It stated the differences between a designer and a search engine optimizer. It also stressed the important functions that both vocations respectively have on a website's development. The article even offered some of my own personal design/optimization workarounds that can easily be applied to your current or next project.

What the article had failed to mention or discuss through, was the third party that plays a huge role in whether or not a website stays successful or washes away never to be seen or heard of again; referring to website's users or visitors.

When developing and maintaining a website, one should not only remember to consider a search engine friendly design, but also the users and their interactions within the website. For the most part, your website's usability should be considered equally if not more important than all other aspects of your website... this includes the design, layout, and marketing strategies.

So what exactly is usability? Well, user-ability or usability, in essence, is the degree to which a user can successfully learn and use a product to achieve a goal. In this case, the product would be your website and the goal would be to find what he or she is searching for in a timely manner. As a way of assisting you to create a true user experience, consider adding the following user-friendly design and marketing suggestions into your current or next project.

Use Search Engine Marketing - Actually a very basic principle, yet for some online merchants it's a fairly complicated subject. To break it down, having a website without search engine marketing, for example, can be compared to opening your business out on some back-country road and the road only ties two farm towns together. Sure you may find a few stray consumers that manage to find and walk through your door, but not too many.

Therefore by including search engine marketing into your website, you have converted your business to a much wider and more populous audience, such as Times Square, New York City contrary to the back-country road. Instantly your business is exposed to several hundred thousand people each day, ensuring your business to be successful. In addition, search engine marketing delivers targeted traffic. Thusly, that is like insinuating that every man, women, or child that stepped onto your equivalent of Time Square, are specifically in search of the products or services that you provide.

In conclusion, by marketing your products and services through search engine marketing, you ensure for your customers a faster and easier solution to their needs that will result in your profit. This is indeed a very important factor in maintaining a true user-friendly experience.

Create Proper Landing Pages - Having just covered ""search engine marketing"", there is something to be learned specifically from Pay Per Click landing pages. A landing page, a page that the searcher lands on when they first enter a website, provides yet another opportunity for you to step up to the plate and deliver a more user-friendly experience.

It is very important to direct your Pay Per Click traffic to a page that clearly outlines the information the searcher was looking to attain. You would only waste their time by sending them through the home page or some other non-related page. Website usability is great when you provide your visitors with the information that they are in search of in a very timely manner. Therefore, the more time that you waste making them search, the greater the chance that they will become annoyed and eventually move on to other search listings.

People that use search engines to find products or services provide you with information about themselves and how far they are in the buying process. For example:

If a person were to do a search by using a very general term such as ""MP3 Players"" than it's probably safe to assume that the person is indeed researching the subject and is not quite sold on any particular brand or style as of yet. My suggestion would be to create a specific landing page that would outline several MP3 players that you carry. This intern would help the customer to find one that best suites their needs.

On the contrary, if a person were to search for ""20GB Dell DJ"" than it's quite obvious that they know exactly what it is that they want to purchase. However, they still would be in search of the right place to make their purchase. In this scenario, I would suggest that you do all you can to convince your visitor that you are worthy of their business. Simply send this type of traffic to a page that highlights elements such as your low price, low shipping rates, shipping options, return policies, privacy policies, and that you maintain a secure shopping environment.

Highlight Shipping Rates - In most competitive industries, shipping options and rates have become just as much of a selling point as the product's actual cost. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to highlight or advertise your shipping rates on your homepage and landing pages. You should even offer specialty savings on shipping rates to entice and retain potential customers to buy from your store.

More and more customers have abandoned their shopping carts. There are instances where website visitors would leave in the middle of the ""check-out"" phase. Some of these lost sales can be contributed to a website's shipping rates. This key fact makes sense because on most websites, the only way you can determine how much your shipping and/or handling fees are going to be would be by going through the actual checkout.

Website owners need to understand that shipping options and rates are very important bits of information to their website's visitors. By highlighting the information up front you, again, can deliver a true user-friendly experience.

Use A Proper Navigation System - One of the most effective ways to help your visitors find the information, products, or services that they desire is to equip your website with a navigation system that is easy to find, understand, and use. It is encouraged that you create a navigation system that resides across the top of the page, or one that flows down the left side of the page. Both instances are quite common, as well as practical.

In addition, your navigation system should not change from one page to another. By doing so it will most-likely create confusion, which is what you are trying to avoid. Therefore, maintain the same layout, link order, and color sequence to prevent any sort of misdirection on your part.

Use A Proper ""Call To Action"" Phrase - After you have helped your website's visitors to find what they are looking for in a timely manner, it becomes your obligation to make them feel as if they were in 100% control of their shopping experience. In general, online shoppers will almost always feel in control as long as they are not pressured in any way. Finally, give this last bit of information half a chance and it will convert more of your website visitors into customers.

The ""call to action"" phrase, the phrase that will direct online shoppers to add an item into their shopping cart, will outwardly reflect on a website sales and conversions. Taking that into consideration, use the phrase ""Add to Cart"" or an ""Add to Cart"" button as your ""call to action"" whenever possible. ""Add to Cart"" is something that is well recognized and understood to be a part of the buying process (both online and offline).

Should you choose to use other phrases, such as ""Buy Now"" or ""Order Now"", you risk that your website visitors will feel pressure. This is what you do not want to happen. Statements such as these will be seen as bold and forceful. Subsequently, your visitors feel as if they MUST buy then, rather than just adding it to the shopping cart. Also, statements such as ""Buy Now"" and ""Order Now"" give finality to the process when possibly not intended. Instead of adding an item to the shopping cart, the statement now suggests that your visitors will be transferred directly to the checkout where they must now make a purchase.

In the offline world, a person would not go into a super-market or a retail store, find the first of many items they want to buy, buy it, and proceed to reenter the store to continue shopping for the rest. This is an un-natural behavior. Instead, people add items into their shopping carts as they find them, and when finished, they then proceed to the checkout. Your website's ""call to action"" phrase should suggest nothing different.

In conclusion, online shoppers have come to expect a few distinct shopping principles which revolve around the few usability suggestions stated within this article. They have come to expect that search engines will outline the most relevant websites on the Internet according to their query, and then by clicking on a listing they will arrive directly at the information they are seeking. They have come to expect a shopping environment where they feel 100% in control. Most of all, online shoppers understand that they do not have to settle for less. In fact, online shoppers are sold by intriguing offers or deals. Ignoring these few shopping principles will be very hazardous to on your online efforts.

Karl Ribas - Search Engine Marketing Consultant

About the author: Karl Ribas, Search Engine Marketing Consultant , provides up-to-date, valuable, and effective SEM services to a wide range of small, medium, and large-size businesses. Besides being the owner and operator of his website, Karl Ribas.com, Ribas is also the Project Manager at All Web Promotion , an industry-leading search engine marketing firm.

Non Reciprocal Links = Top Google Rankings

Author: Mark Dietzel

When I left my day job four years ago I had four website's, today I have forty five sites and a while back I noticed that two of my sites have held their ""Top Three"" positions through all of the trends, fads, search engine updates, even the Florida update did not affect their top positions. To say the least I was perplexed, there was nothing really apparent that made these two sites different in fact I had did a terrible job of keeping them updated, you know too busy with the other site's greasing the squeaky wheels. They were not broken so I did not fix them.

So anyway I needed to figure out why these sites had did so well with so little attention. Now I am thinking if I can just figure out why then I can do the same to the rest of my sites. But like I said earlier I did very little to these sites, they never needed it. It just did not make sense until after days of hair pulling I decided to analyze them just like I would do one of my competitors. First the on page factors had nothing special just very basic SEO, second I looked at the list of inbound links nothing really jumped out at me, so I made a list of my reciprocal partners from my links page then eliminated those from the inbound link list, which left about three dozen links of which six were scraper site's so I eliminated those so now there are 30 links I did not know about, at first I thought no big deal these are just links from site's that wanted a reciprocal link and I never got back to them, like I said I had neglected these two sites. Analyzing the 30 links, six or seven probably were from reciprocal link request that I had ignored, so I was left with 23 unexpected links to analyze and here's what I found

* None of the links were on a links page.

* All of the links were either in an article or review.

* All of the links had text before and after the link text.

* Almost all of the links had different text in the link.

* Most of the pages linking to me only had 5 to 10 outbound links.

* Some of the links were to my home page but the others were to interior pages.

* Most of the pages linking to me were only one level deep. (1 click from the home page)

Apparently the handful of ""quality non-reciprocal links"" was behind the success of these two sites, which if you look at it from a search engine's point of view it makes perfect sense because an unbiased, non-reciprocal and natural occurring link is the only true vote for the quality of the content on your site. The search engines and especially Google are smart enough to spot reciprocal links and know that a reciprocal link has nothing to do with the quality of the content on your site, they know that its just a trade between two webmasters trying to get better rankings.

Back when Google first started counting inbound links as votes for a site in its algorithms they did not have to worry about whether the link was natural, reciprocal or paid because so few people knew about it, plus unlike today the technology did not exist back then to easily scan and spot reciprocal links. But as more people learned about the power of linking more and more abuse took place, forcing Google to adjust their algorithms.

Next week we'll exam ways to get quality one way links to your site.

Mark Dietzel

About the author: Mark Dietzel is founder of Natural Linking at http://www.naturallinking.com a service providing one way non-reciprocal links.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Article And Directory Submission - Hiring A SEO Professional

Author: Mansi gupta

If you own a website it goes without saying that you want to attract as much targeted traffic as possible. Figuring out how to bring the visitors to your tiny corner of the Internet can be a daunting task and once you've found a technique which offers some measure of success, the rules will change on you and your traffic nosedives. Let's face it, there are three primary ways that people come to your website:

They type your website address into a browser. They find you through a search engine. They click your link on another website.

When I started promoting my own web site several years ago, I already knew many of the common strategies for search engine optimization and link building, but once I began to put those techniques into practice, I discovered an unending stream of subtleties I had never considered, and could only learn through consistent research in the field. Frankly, the amount of time it takes to plan, monitor and revise website promotion campaigns is immense. For that reason it's often a wise investment to seek out an experienced company to handle this work for you.

SEO Companies Services

Directory Submission Services:

There are thousands of directories on the Internet ranging from the well-respected DMOZ (dmoz.org), topic-specific directories, to paid-inclusion directories, to absolutely worthless directories which you would be better off not having a link in. Your SEO (search engine optimization) firm should seek out quality directories, and directories related to your website's content, and be experienced enough to competently manage the process of getting your website into the directories. DMOZ for example has a somewhat lengthy process and stringent requirements for entry, and it takes persistence to get a link added. On the other hand, if you're willing to pay $300 a year, Yahoo! will add you to their directory though the $300 is non-refundable and they warn you that payment does not guarantee entry. These are all details it takes time to learn, but details a hired Website Marketing expert or company should be savvy with.

Article Submission Services:

A great way to build natural and permanent links to your websites is through submitting articles to other web sites each of which contains one or more live links pointing to your business' site. By syndicating custom-written articles to other web sites you're also increasing your chances of being found in the search engines for the keywords that are relevant to your business. There are many webmasters who welcome free content to increases their presence on the Internet.

Freelance Writing Services:

In order to submit articles to other web sites, someone has to create that content. Many companies provide freelance writing services on a variety of topics. Typically they will have a list of writers they work with on a regular basis and select the one who has the best knowledge of your market area. Alternately, they will tap into a network of freelance writers advertise the topics then take quotes from applicants and manage the production process. Another option is for them to repackage content you already have or guide you in writing keyword-rich new content.

Optimizing your Website for Good Search Engine Placement: If you have not yet spent the time to optimize your web pages to improve the chances of being found in the search engines, an SEO firm should be able to analyze your present site and give you a report on changes you need to make, ranked in the order importance. By applying some ranking to the site analysis report, it makes it simpler to tackle the work in stages and take care of the most important modifications first, while leaving the more subtle changes for later. The SEO consulting firm may also provide pre- and post-optimization search engine visibility reports. Through a variety of tracking tools they will determine metrics for measuring the effectiveness of their services with respect to increasing your site's rankings and visitor traffic.

Search Engine Optimization is a fuzzy art in which the rules and techniques change as quickly as the Internet changes. Nonetheless, a good SEO consulting expert will always be able to help move your website towards better search engine placement, greater visibility, and consequently higher levels of targeted traffic. When it comes to choosing any professional -- a dentist, doctor, travel agent or hair stylist, it may take you a couple tries to locate the right SEO professional for your business, but it's usually better to focus on what you do best, and hire experts who spend all their time staying informed and practicing effective website promotion.

About the author: Mansi gupta writes about directory submission .

More Website Traffic from Higher Page Rank

Author: Hans Hasselfors

Many surfers use the Google or Alexa bar that integrates into their web browsers which consequently makes it easier for them to search and navigate through Internet. However, how many have the ""overall page rank"" indicator on these bars which shows either a ranking or the importance of the page?

The overall page rank in directories like Google, Yahoo or Alexa is the key factor while doing a search. It decides which website or page deserves the top places in the results of the search of a keyword. The search engine basically calculates the importance of the webpage.

For example, let's say that you prepared a webpage supplying the users with focused, detailed and understandable info. You think your page deserves a high importance, therefore when you search for the theme of your website, you believe it should be shown in the top 20. Well, sometimes life is cruel. If you don't optimize your webpage for a specific keyword, if you don't get enough inbound links directing the user to your site, you would be disappointed by the 1/10 importance rating in Google. Don't give up! It's still worth fighting for. There are several factors which decide the page rank of a website.

First of all, Internet is not like the streets of a city: if you put your ""shop"" in a busy street, people will drop by your place. No visit on Internet is a coincidence. You have to create your links from other sites (inbound links). You also have to increase the internal linking of your website so that visitors can just ""hang around"" in your site. So your first factor for the page rank is the linking of your page.

Secondly, pages which attract more users (i.e. number of unique daily users) are obviously more important in the ""eyes"" of the search engines. This, being the dependent variable in our equation, grows directly proportional to the inbound links. So, page rank also increases with the number of unique users.

At last, relative, focused content increases the importance of your page (page rank). Initially, every page you add to your site increases the overall page rank of the whole before you start adding in-context hyperlinks; ""in-context"" hyperlinks because according to Google authorities, the hyperlinks that you place inside the content of the page are accepted more valuable.

Briefly, on the web, there are no lucky days, no coincidences or no serendipities. If you want website traffic on your page, you have to create it yourself. You have to put quality, focused and original content, you have to increase the number of the inbound links. The website traffic on your site will increase automatically depending on the other variables. Finally, one day you will look at your site and see that the page rank has jumped from 1 to 4 or even higher. Then you will understand that ""La vita e bella.""

About the author: Hans Hasselfors is a successful business entrepreneur and internet marketing consultant. Get the net working for you. Join a community of like-minded entrepreneurs and make your living online. Become a member of The Business Professional network. http://ww w.internet-marketing-experts-online.com

Selecting a Search Engine Optimization Company - PART 2

Author: Anita van Wyk

Please read ""Selecting a Search Engine Optimization Company - PART 1"" at

http://www.small-biz-web-so lution.com/selecting-a-search-engine-optimization-company-part1.h tml first.

When you are checking out search engine optimization companies, make sure they have actually done the work they are claiming to have done. Some companies will use other company's results in order to get you to sign on with them. If you are in doubt, call the company they are showing you results for, and ask for the name of their search engine optimization company.

It's important to keep in mind that a successful search engine optimization campaign will result in maximum exposure across a wide range of popular search engines using a variety of keywords and phrases. This is the formula for a successful campaign, and you should keep it always in the forefront of your marketing strategy.

Ask the search engine optimization company you are considering for a report that shows you rankings across a number of popular search engines for a period of at least six months. Remember: search engine marketing is a process that is continual, and you need a company that not only understands this, but keeps constant tabs on your search engine positions. That company must also be able to adjust its strategy in the event that search engine rankings drop.

Since search engine marketing is an on-going process, your positions must be constantly monitored. If you want your search engine optimization company to do this for you, request a sample of a monthly report. It is essential that this report should show rankings for the most popular search engines. Don't be impressed by a report that only shows great results for a limited number of small search engines. These are fairly easy results to acquire. Also confirm that the popular search engine results they are showing you are indeed the popular search engines currently.

Be sure the sample report the company shows you is in a format that you can easily understand. For example, it could be in the form of a chart that covers a period of at least six months and presents data such as the top 50 positions broken down on a monthly basis or the top 5 pages each month. Then, ascertain that the company you are considering actually monitors these positions or pages every month, and that the sample report they show you includes findings and recommendations for the specific site. This insures that the company will actively monitor and make adjustments to their strategy on a continual basis rather than simply gather statistics on your positions. You need a company that is actively participant in your search engine marketing campaign, not just an information gatherer.

Obviously, your finances have to figure into your choice of company, but bear in mind that a search engine optimization company is crucial the success of your marketing campaign. It is not just a casual accessory. If you cannot afford a company that will do a thorough and reliable job for your website, you might consider waiting until you do have the finances in place.

If you have to find a company and can't wait for your finances to catch up, you may be able to find an affordable company that will also be able to supply quality, reliable work, such as a fairly new company. Just remember that there are risks involved with using a company without a proven track record - and that risk is your money! Don't take that leap unless the company can supply you with a least a few references.

References are the most reliable indicator of a good company. Don't use a company that won't show your references because of any reason, confidentiality included. Remember - even doctors will provide references! The firm you choose should provide you with a minimum of two references, one that is from the past, and one that is current.

When you contact these references, be prepared to ask precise, specific questions so that neither of your time is wasted. Ask them what their experience was like with the company, such as their availability to answer questions and deal with problems and their ability to meet deadlines. Ask the reference to rate the overall performance of the company.

Find out if the company requested that the reference make significant changes to their web pages that affected the visitors coming to their site. You are looking for a search engine optimization company that can balance the needs of both search engines and site visitors without compromising either.

The most essential question to ask is whether the work of the search engine optimization company resulted in higher profits for the reference. Without profits, it doesn't matter whether your positions are at the top of the list or not.

This article may be freely reprinted as long as all links and author information remain.

About the author:

For a FREE 6 Day e-course on How to Improve your Search Engine Ranking and Tips on how to get much more Traffic please send a blank email to searchengineandtraffictips@getresponse.com

This article may be freely reprinted as long as all links and author information remain.

Selecting a Search Engine Optimization Company - PART 1

Author: Anita van Wyk

A Search Engine Optimization Company can be an invaluable asset in your Internet marketing campaign. They specialize in knowing how to raise your search engine positions, monitoring those positions on the regular basis, and adjusting their strategies to account for undesirable results in any given month. Since this takes a lot of time, effort, and specialized knowledge, it can be in your best interest to go to an outside source rather than try to maintain high search engine positions on your own.

However, like every business, there are good companies and there are lemons. Knowing the right questions to ask and the criteria to look for will help you in choosing an affordable, effective search engine optimization company.

When looking at different companies, begin by considering the approach they employ to raise your search engine positions. Steer clear of companies that use cloaked, doorway, or bridge pages to raise your positions. These techniques violate most search engine policy, and in the worst case scenario, will only get your website severely penalized, if not removed entirely from a search engine's index.

A cloaked page is a page that is created which is invisible to the regular visitor to your website. The cloaked page is coded to detect a search engine spider and divert them to this special page, which is set-up to artificially boost your search engine position. Doorway or bridge pages utilize the same concept, but often reside on an entirely different server. Google, one of the largest and most important search engine on the Internet, will remove your website from their index if they detect you have cloaked pages. Never, never employ any company that uses this technique!

Another important element is to get a guarantee that the company you hire will not work with your competitors while they are working for you. Obviously, this would seriously compromise the effectiveness of the search engine optimization campaign. Be aware that some companies will use the success they achieve for your website to sell their services to your competitors. So get your guarantee in writing, and make sure it is legally binding.

Of course, one of the most important factors you want to check out is the company's track record of results. However, don't take the company's word for it. They will undoubtedly be slanting their results in order to sell their services to you. To go beyond their simple statement of success, ask them a few pertinent questions, and verify their answers.

Ask them which engines they have achieved the best results on. The ones that are important are the most popular engines, and these are the ones you want to see good results on. Since the popularity of search engines can change with the landscape of the overall Internet, check out the Nielsen Netratings page at Search Engine Watch. You can access this at http://www.searchenginewatch.com/article.php/2156451.

Next, find out what keywords and phrases they are claiming great results with. It's easy to get high rankings with unpopular words. For instance, the keyword ""cat leashes"" will get high popularity ranking because no one else would think of using it. What you are looking for is good results using popular keywords. Check out the software Wordtracker, available at www.wordtracker.com. You can order a free trial, or a subscription ranging from 1 day to 1 year. This software rates the popularity of keywords and phrases based on actual search engine use.

Next, look for good results over an entire site that the company claims to have successfully worked for. You want to see a wide range of positions over a number of different search engines using different keywords or phrases for the entire site. Request a report for any client the company claims to have done well for. This report should show good positions on a number of the most popular search engines for a variety of different, popular keywords and phrases.

Please continue reading ""Selecting a Search Engine Optimization Company - PART 2"" at

http://www.small-biz-web-so lution.com/selecting-a-search-engine-optimization-company-part2.h tml

This article may be freely reprinted as long as all links and author information remain.

About the author:

For a FREE 6 Day e-course on How to Improve your Search Engine Ranking and Tips on how to get much more Traffic please send a blank email to searchengineandtraffictips@getresponse.com

This article may be freely reprinted as long as all links and author information remain.

Increase Landing Page Conversions

Author: Christine Stander

Other than SEO, usability and conversion analytics is a topic close to my heart.

When it comes to landing pages, users are vastly different to that of organic searchers. They want results and they want it fast, they are there for a purpose, so don't waste their time with loads of content. Give them the facts, make sure your Call To Actions (CTA) are clearly visible, take them exactly where they want to be without any hassles. So what should you consider when designing your pages to increase conversions?

Before the Click

When people are searching for something online they have a specific intent. They are either looking for information or looking to purchase a product or service etc. When they see your paid ad and it conforms to their needs they will click on it. That is great, but have you prepared your site to the best of its abilities? One of the simplest ways in which to ensure that they don't immediately click out of your site is to take them where they want to be.

So many people still overlook this small, but very vital action. Don't take them to your site's home page. Although your home page might have loads of information about your company, product or service or may just be of very flattering design, this means nothing to your PPC visitor.

Take them directly to where they want to be.

Choosing the Most Effective Page

If your visitor was looking for ""Blue Widgets"" take them directly to your ""Blue Widgets"" page, not to ""Red Widgets"" or ""All Widgets"", or ""About Widgets"", directly to ""Blue Widgets"". Simple. Effective. Most retailers would use the ""product page"" as their primary landing page. Service providers would use the ""service page"".

There are two ways of going about your landing page strategy. You may choose to either send your traffic to a page within your existing website, or what I have found to be most effective is to create landing pages specifically targeted towards your PPC campaign.

This provides you with more freedom to customise the design of your landing page.

Design for Profitability

1. Design. First impressions count. Ensure that your landing page design is appealing and looks professional.

2. Headlines. Make them bold and prominent. This is the ideal place to capture your visitor's attention. Affirm that they have reached the best page to answer their queries or provide the product they are looking for. Repeating the key-phrase within the headline is the easiest way in which to do this is.

3. Convincing Content. Now you don't want to make your visitors read tons of content. Your content should merely emphasise your headlines. Keep it simple. They are here for a reason, emphasise that reason and answer their most important questions:

* What is the product offer

* Who or what type of person or business would be interested in this offer

* Why would they want to take further action

* How do they get started

4. Make your CTAs Images. Since this is a landing page and the page does not need to be optimised for organic SEO you are able to tie in more design features such as stylised buttons and even flash elements if needed. Research has proven that people tend to want to click on images. Take advantage of this fact by making your call to actions buttons or graphics.

5. Caption Images. Images draw attention on web pages, so in the same breath this is the area where you will most likely benefit the most from your marketing efforts. Place your hard sell there for best results.

6. Check Boxes. Ensure that the option selected is the right one for your target audience. This is easy if is a simple ""yes"" or ""no"", but when there are multiple options, perhaps consider leaving them blank. This will inspire interaction with the page, and you are on the way to a positive conversion.

7. Action is Right. Through much ""heat map"" and ""eye-tracking"" research conducted on websites it has been proven that most actions take place on the right hand side of the page. Top right to be very precise. Ensure that you include your most prominent CTA on the top right and then emphasise this throughout your content.

8. Above the Fold. Keeping your content above the fold is key to your landing page design. What is the fold? In a nutshell everything you see on your computer screen for that page. For example if you are running your monitor at 800 x 600 your fold line will be higher, so you would see less information than someone running at 1024 x 800 who would see more content. The average is to test at 800 x 600 and ensure that all your critical or most important information lies within this area.

9. Navigation. Well this is actually a misnomer as that should be non-existent, or if a must-have then dramatically reduced. Your visitors' *only* option should be to complete your intended action for that page. Don't give them a variety of options to confuse their ""state of purchase"".

10. Forms. If your ""action"" is for example a lead via form-fill keep it simple. Don't have too many ""required"" fills. Only get the most important details from your visitor. It could be as little as:

* Full Name

* Email address

* Contact number

* Product or Service Interest

11. Testing & Tracking. Testing your page's conversion is very important. A/B Split testing has become very popular especially if you're serious about increasing your landing page conversions. Remember that the most effective way of A/B split testing is only changing one element at a time, otherwise your conversions might get lost in the changes and you won't be able to effectively track what the increase / decrease was caused by. Some of the elements you should keep in mind when conducting your tests are:

* Bonus gifts

* Guarantees

* Product images

* Calls to action

* Headings and headlines

* Action buttons and text

* Forms

* Product or service price or a price range

* Endorsements

* Design

* Copy

* Colours

12. Thank You. As with everything in life it's the smallest actions that speak the loudest words. Once your visitor has completed their action, thank them for it. Create and deliver a custom ""thank you page"" by stating for example their action: ""Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter"" etc.

These are some of the most basic points to take into consideration when you are designing pages that convert. By taking these elements into consideration you can have a significant impact on your site's revenue.

About the author: Christine Stander is a professional search engine optimisation and online marketing strategist with experience in many facets of search marketing, user behaviour analysis and brand management. For more information please refer to: http://www.altersage.com

Sunday, October 29, 2006

An SEO Glossary - Common SEO Terms Defined

Author: Glenn Murray

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become an essential weapon in the arsenal of every online business. Unfortunately, for most business owners and marketing managers (and even many webmasters), it's also somewhat of an enigma. This is partly due to the fact that it's such a new and rapidly changing field, and partly due to the fact that SEO practitioners tend to speak in a language all of their own which, without translation, is virtually impenetrable to the layperson. This glossary seeks to remedy that situation, explaining specialist SEO terms in plain English...

AdWords

See Sponsored Links .

algorithm

A complex mathematical formula used by search engines to assess the relevance and importance of websites and rank them accordingly in their search results. These algorithms are kept tightly under wraps as they are the key to the objectivity of search engines (i.e. the algorithm ensures relevant results, and relevant results bring more users, which in turn brings more advertising revenue).

article PR

The submitting of free reprint articles to many article submission sites and article distribution lists in order to increase your website's search engine ranking and Google PageRank. (In this sense, the ""PR"" stands for PageRank.) Like traditional public relations, article PR also conveys a sense of authority because your articles are widely published. And because you're proving your expertise and freely dispensing knowledge, your readers will trust you and will be more likely to remain loyal to you. (In this sense, the ""PR"" stands for Public Relations.)

article submission sites

Websites which act as repositories of free reprint articles. They are sites where authors can submit their articles free of charge, and where webmasters can find articles to use on their websites free of charge. Article submission sites generate revenue by selling advertising space on their websites. See also article PR .

backlink

A text link to your website from another website. See also link .

copy

The words used on your website.

copywriter

A professional writer who specializes in the writing of advertising copy (compelling, engaging words promoting a particular product or service). See also SEO copywriter and web copywriter .

crawl

Google finds pages on the World Wide Web and records their details in its index by sending out 'spiders' or 'robots'. These spiders make their way from page to page and site to site by following text links. To a spider, a text link is like a door.

domain name

The virtual address of your website (normally in the form www.yourbusinessname.com ). This is what people will type when they want to visit your site. It is also what you will use as the address in any text links back to your site.

ezine

An electronic magazine. Most publishers of ezines are desperate for content and gladly publish well written, helpful articles and give you full credit as author, including a link to your website.

Flash

A technology used to create animated web pages (and page elements).

free reprint article

An article written by you and made freely available to other webmasters to publish on their websites. See also article PR .

Google

The search engine with the greatest coverage of the World Wide Web, and which is responsible for most search engine-referred traffic. Of approximately 11.5 billion pages on the World Wide Web, it is estimated that Google has indexed around 8.8 billion. This is one reason why it takes so long to increase your ranking!

Google AdWords

See Sponsored Links .

Google PageRank

How Google scores a website's importance. It gives all sites a mark out of 10. By downloading the Google Toolbar , you can view the PR of any site you visit.

Google Toolbar

A free tool you can download . It becomes part of your browser toolbar. It's most useful features are it's PageRank display (which allows you to view the PR of any site you visit) and it's AutoFill function (when you're filling out an online form, you can click AutoFill, and it enters all the standard information automatically, including Name, Address, Zip code/Postcode, Phone Number, Email Address, Business Name, Credit Card Number (password protected), etc.) Once you've downloaded and installed the toolbar, you may need to set up how you'd like it to look and work by clicking Options (setup is very easy). NOTE: Google does record some information (mostly regarding sites visited).

HTML

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the coding language used to create much of the information on the World Wide Web. Web browsers read the HTML code and display the page that code describes.

Internet

An interconnected network of computers around the world.

JavaScript

A programming language used to create dynamic website pages (e.g. interactivity).

keyword

A word which your customers search for and which you use frequently on your site in order to be relevant to those searches. This use known as targeting a keyword. Most websites actually target 'keyword phrases' because single keywords are too generic and it is very difficult to rank highly for them.

keyword density

A measure of the frequency of your keyword in relation to the total wordcount of the page. So if your page has 200 words, and your keyword phrase appears 10 times, its density is 5%.

keyword phrase

A phrase which your customers search for and which you use frequently on your site in order to be relevant to those searches.

link

A word or image on a web page which the reader can click to visit another page. There are normally visual cues to indicate to the reader that the word or image is a link.

link path

Using text links to connect a series of page (i.e. page 1 connects to page 2, page 2 connects to page 3, page 3 connects to page 4, and so on). Search engine 'spiders' and 'robots' use text links to jump from page to page as they gather information about it, so it's a good idea to allow them traverse your entire site via text links.

link partner

A webmaster who is willing to put a link to your website on their website. Quite often link partners engage in reciprocal linking.

link popularity

The number of links to your website. Link popularity is the single most important factor in a high search engine ranking. Webmasters use a number of methods to increase their site's link popularity including article PR, link exchange (link partners / reciprocal linking), link buying, and link directories.

link text

The part of a text link that is visible to the reader. When generating links to your own site, they are most effective (in terms of ranking) if they include your keyword.

meta tag

A short note within the header of the HTML of your web page which describes some aspect of that page. These meta tags are read by the search engines and used to help assess the relevance of a site to a particular search.

natural search results

The 'real' search results. The results that most users are looking for and which take up most of the window. For most searches, the search engine displays a long list of links to sites with content which is related to the word you searched for. These results are ranked according to how relevant and important they are.

organic search results

See natural search results .

PPC (Pay-Per-Click advertising)

See Sponsored Links .

PageRank

See Google PageRank .

rank

Your position in the search results that display when someone searches for a particular word at a search engine.

reciprocal link

A mutual agreement between two webmasters to exchange links (i.e. they both add a link to the other's website on their own website). Most search engines (certainly Google) are sophisticated enough to detect reciprocal linking and they don't view it very favorably because it is clearly a manufactured method of generating links. Websites with reciprocal links risk being penalized.

robot

See spider .

robots.txt file

A file which is used to inform the search engine spider which pages on a site should not be indexed. This file sits in your site's root directory on the web server. (Alternatively, you can do a similar thing by placing tags in the header section of your HTML for search engine robots/spiders to read.

Sandbox

Many SEO experts believe that Google 'sandboxes' new websites. Whenever it detects a new website, it withholds its rightful ranking for a period while it determines whether your site is a genuine, credible, long term site. It does this to discourage the creation of SPAM websites (sites which serve no useful purpose other than to boost the ranking of some other site). Likewise, if Google detects a sudden increase (i.e. many hundreds or thousands) in the number of links back to your site, it may sandbox them for a period (or in fact penalize you by lowering your ranking or blacklisting your site altogether).

SEO

Search Engine Optimization. The art of making your website relevant and important so that it ranks high in the search results for a particular word.

SEO copywriter

A 'copywriter' who is not only proficient at web copy, but also experienced in writing copy which is optimized for search engines (and will therefore help you achieve a better search engine ranking for your website).

search engine

A search engine is an online tool which allows you to search for websites which contain a particular word or phrase. The most well known search engines are Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

site map

A single page which contains a list of text links to every page in the site (and every page contains a text link back to the site map). Think of your site map as being at the center of a spider-web.

SPAM

Generally refers to unwanted and unrequested email sent en-masse to private email addresses. Also used to refer to websites which appear high in search results without having any useful content. The creators of these sites set them up simply to cash in on their high ranking by selling advertising space, links to other sites, or by linking to other sites of their own and thereby increasing the ranking of those sites. The search engines are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and already have very efficient ways to detect SPAM websites and penalize them.

spider

Complete SEO Tutorial - Start from the beginning!

Author: Manish Kumar Pandey

SEO the short form of Search Enigne Optimization, is a tremendous need of the day for many webmasters...

You have made a web site and consider it as the #1 site that you could have ever made but, is that the case with the people of this world and most importantly, the search engines??

It's a fact that people are coming from the search engines and to let the world know that you exist you have to make search engines 'love' your site... and to do so you have to just take care of few things as listed below and I asure you that as you master these things you will certainly grow!!!

1. Site Concept This should be the subject that you like most! It could be anything. If you like travelling then you can make wonderful site on travel based, if you like animals you can come up with that site... just sit down for a minute and just think what do i talk about and what do you do for entertainment... because everybody has something special in him that makes him diferent from others.

2. Keywords Now, the next step would be to know what people actually type in the search engines to search for to get to the site that you want to make. Go to http://inventory.overture.com and type in the words that you think that people will type to see you site.

Extract few keywords from it but at the beginning just consider those that have less number of websites already on! Less websites= Less Competetion!!

3. On-page Optimization This is the very important section... Here you have to consider various things to develop a nice site. Your tag must contain your primary keyword, the to tags must contain your keywords... your body text must have a proper balance of text and keywords in them... so that it is good for both the HUMAN and search engine ROBOTS...

4. Off-page Optimization This is of tremendous importance... These days search engines are considering sites that have proper balance of link exchange. Link exchange is a very important tool to enhance the popularity of you site...

Few places where you can make link exchange are http://www.honest-links.net http://www.likmarket.net http://www.link-exchange.ws http://www.linkalizer.com

5. Wait and Watch as you grow! Now, that you have done all the things properly it's time to see the results... this could take some time but the rewards are just incredible!!

In the next coming article I would tell you how to get listed in the GOOGLE search engine in just 24-48 hours!!

Hope to see you on the top!!

About the author: Manish Kumar Pandey is an Engineering student, webmaster of website on online home based business opportunity http://www.internet-home-based-business-opportunity.info/ and a quick trainer. He has helped many people to enhance the looks and run a successful site!

SEO Killer - Server Log Files

Author: Hossam Abdel-Kader

It is very important for every website owner to collect information about visitors, their behavior, how they move on the website, which interests the have and how long time they spend on which pages. Web servers collect those information and save them in log files. The most of hosting provider are offering software to report the visitor traffic on theire customer websites. If you have such application in use and you are interested in search engine optimization, this article may help you to avoid losing search engine positions or being banned.

A friend of mine had a website offering valuable information about human health. His website was till Febr. 2005 one of the best ranked sites the last few years. One month ago he started to complain about visitors fall although he didn't change his optimized search engine friendly concept. So we started to search for the possible reasons. His more than 40 keywords first positions were suddenly dropped from search engines results. It didn't need a long time to find out that his log files were all indexed in all of major search engines. After checking his log files I could find a plenty of links to websites dealing with medical products.

Some kind people can ask now ""What is the problem behind those links?"".. Yes it is a problem.. What would you say if I have a banned website and ask you to exchange links with me? The all of those Websites were banned from search engines with a grayed out PageRank value in Google toolbar. Did you know that a banned website can exchange links with you without your accordance? The only thing they have to do is to link to your website. If somebody clicks on this link, your server adds their url as a referer to the log files. Your report software shows the referer as a link to the banned website. Such scene can happen over night while you sleep.

Search engines such as Google don't make you responsible for links found over the web linking to your website. But they make you responsible for links found on your own website. If you link to a banned site, you risk to be banned too. If you have some luck your web site will be only punished by losing postions in the search engine results.

To avoid this risik, protect your log files by using a password, so that they can not be found or visited by search engine spider. If you can not do that, ask your hosting provider to do this step for you.

About the author: pr-inside.com: Free PR

Saturday, October 28, 2006

How To Increase Your Search Engine Ranking - PART 2

Author: Anita van Wyk

For PART 1

Click here .

To find out if your text is in HTML format, take your cursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are able to do this, the text is HTML. If the text will not highlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case, ask your webmaster to change the text into HTML format in order to increase your search engine rankings.

Next we come to what is called meta tags. I know this sounds like something out of science fiction, but it is really just simple code. Many people believe that meta tags are the key to high search engine rankings, but in reality, they only have a limited effect. Still, it's worth adding them in the event that a search engine will use meta tags in their ranking formula.

To find out if your page is set up with meta tags, you must access the code. To do this, click the ""view"" button on the browser menu bar, and select ""source."" This will pull up a window revealing the underlying code that created the page. If there are meta tags, they usually appear near the top of the window. For example, a meta tag would read: meta name=""keywords"" content=. If you do not find code that reads like this, ask your webmaster to put them in. This may not do much for your search engine rankings, but any little boost helps.

Lastly, we come to the issue of link popularity. This is a factor that is extremely important in terms of search engine rankings. Almost all search engines use link popularity to rank your website. Link popularity is based on the quality of the sites you have linked to from your links page.

If you type in ""free link popularity check"" in a popular search engine, the search engine will then show you what sites are linked to your site. In the case that there aren't many sites linked up to yours, or that the sites that are linked up have low search engine rankings, consider launching a link popularity campaign. Essentially, this entails contacting quality sites and requesting that they exchange links with your site. Of course, this requires checking out the rankings of the websites you want to link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites not only boosts your search engine ranking, but it also directs more quality traffic to your website.

Search engine rankings are extremely important for a successful Internet marketing campaign. Before you go out and hire a search engine optimization company, try taking some of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can't boost your rankings yourself. Don't ever ignore this all-important factor in Internet marketing. Remember, the higher your search engine ranking, the more quality customers will be directed your way.

This article may be freely reprinted as long as all links and author information remain.

About the author: ** http://www.small-biz -web-solution.com offers an affordable web-hosting, web-building and web-marketing solution for any small business/ individual. Free Trial available.

** For a FREE 6 Day e-course on How to Improve your Search Engine Ranking and Tips on how to get much more Traffic please send a blank email to searchengineandtraffictips@getresponse.com

Turn Harmful 404 Error Pages Into Helpful 301 Redirects

Author: Tony Simpson

It's a fact, Page Not Found, known as a 404 error, can harm your website Ranking with Search Engines as well as being a Turn-Off for Visitors.

A search engine that repeatedly gets a 404 error will de-list the page from its index. Too many 404 error pages on your website and its ranking with the search engines will suffer.

Visitors are always just one click away from clicking to another search and another website. Present them with a page not found 404 error and these days they'll not stick around long enough to search for your missing page.

How Many 404 Error Pages Do You Have Right Now on Your Website ?

Unless you check your web stat error logs regularly you'll never know just how many 404 error pages your site has. Even if you don't have a single 404 error right now, I can absolutely guarantee you'll get them.

How Can I Avoid 404 Error Pages ?

The simple answer is you can't, a 404 error can not be avoided.

They happen when you rename a page. They happen if you delete a page. They happen if you change the page file extension i.e. htm to html or php. They happen if you move a page to another location. They happen if other sites link to pages which don't exist. They happen if visitors have bookmarked pages that no longer exist. They happen if visitors mistype a URL.

How is a 301 Redirect Helpful ?

A 301 redirect enable you to send you visitor or the search engine to any replacement page you specify. A 301 redirect is also important because it's what's known as a permanent redirect. A permanent redirect is the one preferred by search engines so they are the only ones you should use if you want your website to be search engine friendly.

How Do I Setup a 301 Redirect ?

Basically there are two ways to setup a search engine friendly redirect. One is by directly modifying what's known as the .htaccess file found in the root directory of your website where your web pages are stored.

The second way is to use a software redirect script. The advantage of using a redirect script is that you can setup and maintain any number of 301 redirect 's through a control panel.

You can also do very clever and helpful things that will make your website even more friendly to visitors and the search engines, but more of that in the 2nd Part of this article.

Setting Up a 301 Redirect Manually

First let's deal with modifying the .htaccess file to setup a redirect manually just so you know what's required. Then I'll tell you a much simpler way to do this and a whole lot more.

First you must find the .htaccess file on your web server. There could be more than one, but you need to locate the one in the same directory as your web pages.

On some web hosts the .htaccess file is hidden, it's there but you just can't see it listed when you FTP to your host. On most web servers it's visible, so I'm only going to deal with the visible file. Download the .htaccess file as ASCII not Binary to your PC then open it with a text editor like Notepad or Textpad, not Word.

In the .htaccess file, type the following line but substituting your locations for the missing and replacement files shown in [ ] brackets, excluding the brackets.

Redirect 301 [relative URL of missing file] [complete URL of replacement file ]

For example:

Redirect 301 /directory/discover.html -http://yourdomain.com/adventure.html

For every other redirect required you must add a new line of code to the .htaccess file then FTP to upload it as an ASCII file back to the same location you downloaded it from.

If all this sounds quite complicated, you'd be right, it can be, but life gets a whole lot easier in the 2nd part of this article Setting Up a 301 Redirect with Redirect Script Software.

About the author: Tony Simpson offers Mentoring and Advice on Web Page Design, Promotion and Optimization for the Search Engines. The 2nd part of this article is at : Setting Up a 301 Redirect with Redirect Script Software

How To Increase Your Search Engine Ranking - PART 1

Author: Anita van Wyk

The methods employed to increase your search engine rankings may seem like rocket science to you, so you have probably avoided dealing with this issue. I am here to tell you - the time has come to face your website! A high search engine ranking for your website is so essential that if you have the slightest desire to actually succeed in your business, there is no way you can continue to avoid this issue.

At least 85% of people looking for goods and services on the Internet find websites through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pages for high search engine rankings is to attract targeted customers to your site who will be more than likely to make a purchase. The higher your page comes up in search engine results, the greater the traffic that is directed to your website. That's what search engine optimization is about.

You can immerse yourself in all the technical information available online to figure out how to optimize your web pages to achieve higher rankings. Or you can look at a few simple items on your pages, make some small adjustments, and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. The first item you should examine is the title bar on your homepage.

The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page. Look at the words that appear there when you access your home page. To increase search engine rankings, the words on your homepage's title bar should include the most important keywords or phrases, one of which would include your company name.

Then click on all your links and examine the title bars on the pages you access. Each title bar on every single page of your site should contain the most important keywords and phrases taken from the page itself. However, avoid very long strings of keywords, keeping them to six words or less. Avoid repeating keywords more than once in the title bars, and make sure that identical words are not next to each other.

The next item to put under your microscope is your website content. Search engines generally list sites that contain quality content rather than scintillating graphics. The text on your site must contain the most important keywords - the words that potential customers will be typing into search engines to find your site.

Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this is not desirable due to your design, aim for at least 100 carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a high ranking on search engines, this text is essential. However, the search engines must be able to read the text, meaning that the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.

To continue to PART 2

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This article may be freely reprinted as long as all links and author information remain.

About the author: ** http://www.small-biz -web-solution.com offers an affordable web-hosting, web-building and web-marketing solution for any small business/ individual. Free Trial available.

** For a FREE 6 Day e-course on How to Improve your Search Engine Ranking and Tips on how to get much more Traffic please send a blank email to searchengineandtraffictips@getresponse.com

Do-it-yourself: Improve your web site positioning in 8 simple steps.

Author: Fernando Macia

Digital marketing, based on the utilization of Internet search engines, is a complex science that requires specialized knowledge in the field of Internet searching. Experts study how search engines evolve, their performance and behavior with particular search concepts, and their popularity at any given time. Armed with this intricate information, these specialists are able to provide advise to web owners on how to improve the performance of their web sites. Nonetheless, there are a few things that all of us can do to advance the positioning of our web sites without having to resort to the subject matter experts or without the need to write complicated code. The following eight steps, along with some familiarity of your market space, and a pinch of common sense, will allow anyone to increase the rankings of their web site on the most popular search engines.

1. Make a List of Search Concepts

The first and foremost task is to come up with a list of keywords that prospective customers are likely to use when searching for your products or services. Avoid using highly technical terms, or specialized slang, if you are trying to reach an end-customer. Keep in mind that the goal here is to not simply increase the web traffic to obtain a greater number of hits, but to impact your sales volume, improve your service, and augment your company's visibility as well. It is therefore a good idea to concentrate on those terms that directly relate to your specific business activities. Do not forget that the majority of Internet searches are performed with at least two or three keyword phrases. If you are targeting some local markets, add the name of the city, state, or local area to your search concepts. A list of 10 to 15 search concepts will be sufficient to start with. Next, sort these concepts by their level of relevance according to your own criteria. For example, if your web site offered document scanning services in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, a potential list of concepts could be ""document scanning"", ""document imaging services"", ""document scanning in Texas"", ""electronic document conversion"", ""document imaging services in DFW"", etc. Note that if your brand or company name is not known, you should not include it as part of your most relevant search concepts since it is unlikely that it will be included during a search. On the contrary, if your brand is well known, it is a good idea to include it inside the first few search concepts.

2. Select the Search Engines

The second step consists of selecting the most popular search engines where you would like to see your company listed. You should always include at least three of the primary search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo and MSN Search), and then, if applicable, add some other engines that either specialize in your line of business, cover a geographical area, or serve a specific ethnic group (e.g. Terra for Spanish-speaking audiences).

3. Test Your Keywords

Next, ensure that your search concepts are adequate by launching queries with each one of them using your top search engines. Review the results returned in each case and verify that they indeed belong to similar companies or to competitors, perhaps. If that proves to be the case, congratulations, you have succeeded! Click on some of the results and try to locate where on the page the search concept actually appears. See if the concept is on the title of the page (the page title is the text on the top bar of the browser window, right next to the browser icon), or on the first few paragraphs, or on some section title. Go ahead and make a note of the exact location, as this will serve as a good reference to do something similar for your own web site.

4. Draft a Title for Each One of Your Web Pages

At this point, you should have finalized all your search concepts and keywords. Choose your number one search concept and use it to write a title for your home page. The ideal title should be anywhere between 6 and 10 words and ought to include the search concept, summarize the content of the page, and communicate an attractive sales proposition. Next, take the top pages for each major section (e.g. products, support, applications, company, etc.) and distribute the rest of the search concepts among them, writing a title for each page in the same manner, keeping the titles below 10 words and trying to include the search concept towards the front of the title.

Important tip: each page should have a unique title, different from all other pages. All titles should contain at least one of the search concepts plus some synonyms (e.g. if your web site is selling shoes, include in your titles terms such as ""boots"", ""sandals"", or ""tennis shoes"".) It is typically not a good idea to simply use your company name as the page title because if someone already knows your company, they will likely know your domain as well.

5. Draft a Description for Each Page

The description of a web page is not a listing of all its contents, but two or three concise phrases that summarize what the page is trying to communicate. This description is only visible from the page's HTML code, but many search engines do consider this text when they are classifying web pages in their results. One may think of the description as an extension of the page title, where secondary search concepts can be added (e.g. ethnic or geographical terms, additional synonyms, etc.). Each description should be unique and should include, towards the front of the text, the search concept that was used in the page title.

6. Include Keywords

Even though some years back keywords played a greater role in the positioning of web pages, it is still a good idea to include a list of keywords. Just like with the page description, the list of keywords is only visible from the page's HTML code. Use six or seven search concepts from your list, selecting only the most relevant ones in each case, and placing the most significant ones first.

7. Optimize the Content

Stop now and look at some of your web pages. If your web offered ""document-imaging services in the Dallas-Fort Worth area"", for example, one would expect those terms to appear several times throughout the text on your web site. If that were not the case, it would be unlikely that someone could find your web site using a combination of those terms. One must always make sure that the primary search concept selected for each page is not only included in its title, its description, and inside the keywords list, but is also used in the text of some of the paragraphs on the page itself. Additionally, the relevance of these primary search concepts can be stressed by using bold characters, or including the concept in a title or a link (e.g. instead of using ""click here"", you may want to use ""sign up for document imaging"".)

8. Submit Your Pages to the Search Engines

It is now time to request the search engines to revisit your web site. This time, a search engine should classify your web pages with a higher ranking for those search concepts that you selected in step one. Access the search engine's home page and select ""Add URL"" or ""Suggest new site"" and follow their submission instructions. Finally, and here is the most difficult part, allow anywhere between 4 to 6 weeks (sometimes it could be longer, be patient!) for the search engine to process your request before testing the new results. Additional information on search engine positioning can be found here.

Conclusion

Even though there are more sophisticated and, at the same time, more labor-intensive methods for obtaining top rankings from search engines, the steps defined here will allow search engines to correctly index your web site, thus improving the chances for obtaining higher rankings. Obviously, there are companies that dedicate considerable resources to consistently obtain top positions, but nonetheless, you will notice that after implementing these simple steps, your positioning will be significantly improved and your web traffic will start to increase. As a final word of advice, keep in mind that search engines favor web sites that regularly post fresh content. Try to renew the content of your pages from time to time and always follow the guidelines described above. Good luck, and remember to be patient!

About the author: Fernando Macia is Human Level Communications' CEO, a company with offices in Alicante, Spain and Dallas, Texas. We specialize in web design, search engine positioning, CMS development, web optimization and traffic statistics data mining.

The way to a text link ads succes

Author: Grojan Fabiola

Since Google appeared, and became the most popular and frequently used search engine, things changed in the ´search engine industry´, because the web sites began to be ranked after the number of sites that linked to them. It appears that Google considers every link that points to one site a vote for it.

Then, the ´link placing industry´ appeared, text link ads began to be bought and sold, but this was not what Google was planning, So the search engines started to filter the sites, trying to separate the ones with paid text links from the ones which ´earned´ them

It is of course,much easier to give a high ranking to your site (the number of links pointing to one site determines that site`s `page ranking` ,which is very important for the search engines) with paid text link ads, then to do search engine optimization. Text links are very popular these days, because they raise a web site´s page rankings, but the fact that text link ads are becoming an industry spoils the results. Text link brokerage appeared, and if one wants to place text link ads pointing to his site, he can contact one of these brokers, or talk to the site owners.

Text links successfully blend the content, `story` , of a site with advertisements, mixing the text with the ads, unlike the too common `click here` banners. Every word in an article from a web page can become an ad now, a link to a web site. Some of these text links can be `dangerous`, because they can hijack the page you are looking at, when you click on them, or they can say that they take you to a site, but in fact they take you to a totally different one...

It is very hard to tell if bought text link ads are a good or a bad thing, because they have both advantages and disadvantages, maybe the will disappear, because the search engines filters are becoming more and more thorough, but for now the are really important in boosting a web site´s rankings

About the author: You can call this a marketing article, althought link building forms a very important part from marketing. Groshan Fabiola is writing diffrent articles with many various themes from marketing, link building, even agriculture or finance. If you want to fin out more about text link ads , please click this link.

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How To Increase Your Search Engine Ranking - PART 1

Do-it-yourself: Improve your web site positioning in 8 simple steps.

The way to a text link ads succes

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